Human Interest vs. Marketing

While this cartoon was an inspired act of creation, it still was specifically targeted to an audience. Admittedly, I am a marketing maven who enjoys the process of discovering new ways to promote the message. It’s a good thing I’m not a Jehovah’s Witness, or you all would grow to dislike me immensely. I watch the attention of the audience carefully. What I find sort of runs against what is expected.

It turns out, it’s not the paranormal topic that is entertaining, but the human interest. Okay, so I inherently know this, but it still is interesting to examine it. People are entertained with emotion and interaction, not the topic. The topic can be anything… from vampires to duck hunting. It comes down to the same thing, people. We love watching each other drop into conflict, rise out of it to model solutions to us. We enjoy laughing at foibles, which wouldn’t be funny without our attachment or knowing it could be ourselves.

This is the knowledge great cartoonists embody. They know how to elicit a response. It is our link to the fans who read our work. It is WHY they read our work. Developing this can take years, or it can be inherent in the nature of the cartoonist beast. For me it was born out of watching the world rather than participating. I was a reclusive, introverted kid. This allowed me to sit back and take it all in. It wasn’t until high school the knowledge found an outlet with the comic strip. All those years of being the wallflower gave me the ability to understand humanity. While I’m not a very good participant in all the hominid nonsense, I do enjoy watching it.

You people are pretty amusing.

I will continue to use my marketing prowess, but will always support it with an understanding of human interest. It just works best that way.